Phil Blanche, Press Association
Cardiff boss Brian Barry-Murphy admitted late stand-in Yousef Salech was “punch-drunk” after the striker’s winner upset in-form Birmingham 1-0 at Cardiff City Stadium.
Salech was scheduled to start the Championship contest on the bench after being out for five weeks with a shoulder injury.
But defender Krystian Bielik was injured in the warm-up, and Barry-Murphy made a couple of positional changes which allowed Salech – who had a penalty saved before scoring his sixth goal of the season – to make a surprising start.
“He looked punch-drunk afterwards, but I think the victory will make him sleep easier,” Barry-Murphy said after Cardiff had kept their first clean sheet this season.
“It wasn’t a situation we envisaged happening. So unexpected.
“Krystian felt his groin at the end of the warm-up and we weren’t sure he could play. We’re already without so many centre-backs, we couldn’t take another chance with Krystian.
“We didn’t expect Yousef to be playing any longer than 45 minutes under any circumstances. But Birmingham are a very dangerous team with a really big set-play presence, and it was important to have Yousef on the pitch for that.”
Cardiff’s victory, a third straight home win which takes them to 16th, came in the week of the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster.
The players visited Aberfan – 20 miles from Cardiff – on Tuesday to honour the 144 victims, including 116 children, who died when a colliery spoil tip fell on the mining village.
Barry-Murphy said: “We understood what the day meant to everybody, so to get the victory that was so badly wanted is very special for everyone. It was very important for the players to watch the footage we saw, and to understand what the people there have been through.
“I think we’re at our best when we’re playing a very intense type of football.
“Sometimes we’re good enough to win and sometimes we’re not, but that’s what we’re always striving for, to play that type of aggressive, front-footed performance.”
Birmingham had started the day in fourth after three consecutive victories and 13 points from 15.
They remain in the play-offs in seventh, but boss Chris Davies said his side could have no complaints after losing for the first time since September 9.
Davies said: “The best team won, in any game if you’re second to the ball that much it’s always going to be hard.
“Every time we had possession of the ball there was a blue shirt on us. They are a side who do put the press on and we just couldn’t get close to their box.
“We were very disorganised for the goal, how easy it came in to the box and the goal. That’s unlike us. We gave ourselves a big job to recover from that and we expected more.”
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